If you Red Wings fans were hoping to read good news this morning about the return of a trio of injured stars, you’ll have to wait for that news later in the week.

With Detroit taking on Columbus tonight they won’t be seeing Jonathan Ericsson, Jimmy Howard, or Johan Franzen back on the ice looking to stay ahead of the Predators for fourth in the West. All three players skated this morning at practice, but all three of them will be hoping to make their return to action later in the week.

Franzen said that he’s experienced back problems in the past, but nothing quite this bad.

“I never had this before. Not like this,” the team’s leading goal-scorer told the Wings’ website. “Can’t play like this.”

Well that doesn’t sound very promising.

For quite some time, Franzen’s carried the “What if?” label with him because of injuries.

That was especially true in a 27-game 2009-10 regular season, although he seemed to have a ceiling around 72 games for a few years until 2010-11, when he played in the second-most games of his career (76 games). Franzen has managed to play in all 71 Red Wings games so far, notching 26 goals and 53 points, but from the sound of his quotes, one cannot help but wonder if Detroit will be lucky to get him back by playoff time.

Then again, he’s called “The Mule” so maybe he’ll shoulder the burden of a quick return (or maybe not even miss a beat). The Red Wings next game will be on NBC Sports Network tomorrow night, so you can eye-ball Detroit – Franzen or not – for yourself.

It might be obvious to have this be our match-up to watch during this afternoon’s Thanksgiving Showdown but with the way Zdeno Chara plays defense and how Johan Franzen has been finding the net this season, today’s game could hinge on how these two deal with each other.

Chara has been an absolute force on the blue line this season. In the team’s toughest games he’s logging the most minutes and there’s never a game that goes by that doesn’t see him trying to wrangle the opposition’s top line. Sure, Chara is known for his imposing presence and big slap shot, but his ability to rein in the biggest goal scorers in the league is what makes him a perennial Norris Trophy finalist.

Seeing Chara have to get a handle on Johan Franzen, however, presents a different brand of challenge. Franzen can beat defenses in a variety of ways. He can hang around the goal and try to be a menace to both defensemen and goalies with his physical presence. Franzen can also hang around the slot and snipe shots that find even the smallest of openings through a goalie and make defenses look bad for even giving him that much time.

With Franzen going into today’s game leading the Red Wings in scoring (10 goals, 11 assists), expect to see Bruins coach Claude Julien to put Chara out there to try and limit his opportunities. Trying to deal with the Red Wings presents plenty of problems for a coach to try and defend correctly against them, but with Chara you can bank on him to dominate more often than not who he’s put against.

Hockey players are already known for their willingness to fight through injuries during the postseason, but that trend maxes out when it comes to a Game 7. Just look at the deciding game of the Buffalo Sabres-Philadelphia Flyers series: Chris Pronger increased his workload dramatically while Derek Roy appeared in his first contest since a December surgery.

Pain isn’t always the biggest factor when a team determines if a player should fight through an injury. Typically, the most important question is: will this injury reduce a player’s effectiveness so much that they would be better off in street clothes?

That might be the biggest question when it comes to San Jose Sharks power forward Ryan Clowe and Detroit Red Wings sniper Johan Franzen. Various sources indicate that Clowe will be a game-time decision while Red Wings coach Mike Babcock didn’t rule Franzen out of Game 7.

When healthy, both players are major contributors to their teams. That being said, I wonder if Clowe will be able to bring the same physical effort to the ice if he is indeed dealing with post-concussion syndrome. On a similar note, Franzen seemed borderline immobile during parts of this series. Each squad would risk essentially having only 19 functional skaters if they incorrectly roll with those players.

That being said, you really cannot put it past either player to contribute considering their talents and the adrenaline boost that comes from playing in a Game 7. We’ll keep you up to date about each situation, although we might not know the final verdicts until the puck drops.

The San Jose Sharks will play without their big, talented forward Ryane Clowe but the Detroit Red Wings will reportedly try to survive without Johan Franzen. “The Mule” will sit out with his recurring ankle problems in favor of Mike Modano, according to TSN.

It’s no shocker that Franzen won’t play in Game 6. To put it lightly, the dangerous playoff performer just couldn’t get around properly in Game 5 and many other points in this series. He was really laboring around and could occasionally be seen limping. You have to respect Franzen’s toughness, but I’m not sure how much he could help the Red Wings with that injury curtailing much of his usefulness.

If nothing else, Modano will be much more mobile than Franzen. We feared that Modano might end his career as a healthy scratch, but he will get at least one more playoff game under his belt tonight (barring unforeseen changes). Modano had one assist in his one playoff appearance this year and 15 points in 40 regular season games before an unlucky injury forced him to miss half the season. If San Jose beats Detroit, it would be surprising if this wasn’t Modano’s last NHL game … but you never know.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, all signs point to Pavel Datsyuk playing again tonight. His ailments didn’t seem to keep him from being his world-class self in Game 5, so it’s not too surprising.